Method of tunneling in rock.



i 0. 877,779. PATENTED JAN. 28, 1908. J. P.'KEANB. METHODOF TUNNELING IN ROCK APPLIOATION FILED APR. 29, 1907.

WITNESSES yum BY l l A TTORNE Y arrangement of the pockets for this purpose.

UNITED STATES PATENT oFFroE.

JOSEPH P. KEANE, OF WALLACE, IDAHO.

METHOD or TUNNELING m-noox.

n. 877,779. Application filed April'29| Specification of Letters Patent.

Iatented Jan. 28, 1908. 1907. Serial No. 370.885.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JosEPH P. KEANE, acitizen of the. United States, residing at Wallace, in the county of Shoshone and State of Idaho, have invented new' and useful 1mprovements in Methods of Tunneling in Rock,

of whichthe following is a specification.

My invention relates to the construction ofxtunnels and pertains especially to railroad or other tunnels of large size through a rock formation. Its object is to provide for running large tunnels particularly through rock, in amore. expeditious, economical and ad vantageousfmethod than obtains in practice at resent.

he invention" comprehends generally speaking'the shooting of the-cutin quick succession or substantially simultaneously 1 partially with tape, and partially with elec tric fuse; thus avoiding the extra waiting for the smoke to .clear out 'from the face as is necessary when the center and sides are shot separately; the scraping upof the broken rock into the car and themeth'od adopted for the same; theshootin-g of the rock from the enlarged portion of the tunnel onto timbers from where it is dropped into cars, and the method employed to obtain this end, and the Having reference to the accompanying drawingsFigure 1" is allongitudinal section of a tunnel under construction. Fig. 2 is a section on line X.X, of same.

The resent invention is particularly de- I signed. or tunneling through rock and wheie the tunnel is to be 16x22 feet or larger. will-be; manifest however that the invention may be worked 'in smaller tunnelsand in other formations;

In the practice of. the invention an underheading or passage-way A is run in on the bottomor track level a-of-the tunnel, in size from 9 to 10 feet in heightandfrom Ste 11' 'feet in width, having either theright: or left side-of this heading correspond with what will be the permanent right or left side of the enlarged tunnel. h This heading is excavated putting in a V out in-theface, the holes converging from sides tov center. The sides are taken outby putting'holesin parallel with the sides, .or as nearly so as is practical.

The holes "are then loaded with powder, put' ting electric fuse theV-cut holes, and tape fuse in the sideholes. The electric fuses are connected in series to battery wire which feet back from the face; with a weak cell battery, battery wires are tested to see if conrings this shows the circuit is closed, or connections havebeengproperly made.- when connections have been shown to be properly made, one man is allowed to remain at the battery and two men proceed to the face to spit the tape fuses; these men are to give the battery. man a signal with their lights this signal is given the battery man, with ting, thettw'o menproceed'to where the into,cars' with 'a scraper. If the ground is'so soft that :it is not practical. to use much powder with which to break it, and it breaks .sh'ovele'd into the cars by hand, and before sary to be shown, but about 3X4 feet'in size, should be placed on the floor of the tunnel.

plates and the-rock can easily be shoveled up; These plates are gradually worked 'up them: After the heading has advanced for a distance of 200 to 250'feet the tunnel is enlarged as follows:

From 6 to 10 sets of timber as b are placed under the point where the enlargement is commenced, in such ,a manner that not less 5% feet more or less above the ties.

just as they commencespittingm When watch in hand; takes the time;'-after spitbattery man is located, behind proper proreak'it, the broken rock will then be in suitable condition to load up into long irregular thin slabs it should be shooting, inch sheet steel plates, not neces-v toward the face of the tunnelso thatthe loose rock may be picked down onto them and-nearly all rock may be shoveled off'from than 3'se'ts are inadvance at this point; the cap -0 of these sets being 'placedat a height of.

Th se caps are covered with 3 inch plank or lagging d in which suitable chutes or openings e are provided through which to 'remoye the V goes back to the battery, located some 250.

nections have been properly made; if the bell The blast throwsthe rockv down onto these,

broken rock. On top of this planking not less than one foot of loose broken rock asf is placed as a covering, to act as a protection and cushion against the rock cast down by the blasting. On top of this rock suitable blocking (not shown) may be placed on which to support the drilling machines and a round of holes is drilled as shown by #1 to #12 inclusive in Fig.2. These holes may be all loaded with powder, and fired in rapid succession with tape fuse, or such numbers may be shot at a time as may be desired; but No. -1 hole must always be fired first, and loaded with only sufficient powder with which to break the ground on this hole. After this No. 1 hole is shot the planks will be covered with a suhicient quantity ofmaterial so it will be nearly impossible to break them. All the holes that it is possible todrill as such should be water holes, to be run just a little below the horizontal so they will carry water, or can be drilled with water. The side holes should be drilled as nearly parallel with the sides of the tunnel as is possible, and the top holes 7, 8, 9, 11, drilled as nearly parallel with the roof as possible; this is done in both cases to avoid as much as possible the breaking of an unnecessary amount of rock from the sides and roof of the tunnel. These holes will in each instance break approximately the section of ground as shown in cut, and should be fired-in the order as shown in out. After the holes as shown are shot the roof is then picked clean of all loose rock, and the broken rock is then drawn out into cars through the openings provided for this purpose; and after the rock is drawn sufficiently low the drilling machines are again set up on blocking on top of this remaining broken rock and another round of holesdrilled as before. I

All the broken rock is removed from the rear set of timbers, and these rear sets are placed in advance on which to shoot another round of holes. After these holes are fired all the face of the enlarged tunnel will be broken excepting that portion shown at the side as included in a, b, c, d, Fig. 2; to break out this portion of the ground a machine is set on top of it, on either a bar,-or tripod, and vertical holes 13 drilled in it close to the side of the tunnel down to the depth of the track. These are drilled so that there udll be less ground. to be broken toward the rear than toward the side, so that the broken ground will be thrown toward the rear falling on the sheet steel plates previously mentioned from which it is shoveled into cars; by having it fall to the rear it will not obstruct the main track.

If the heading is soft, the timbers on which the upper portion of the tunnel is later broken down, may be put in place in the head as it has been advanced, at a height of about feet; this height being suflicient in which to work an ordinary size mule.

It is preferable to bring air up to the enlarged face of the tunnel in pipes 7L placed over head, both compressed air and for ventilation. The air for the heading should be conveyed along the permanent side of the heading; the compressed air pipe i 011 the floor of the tunnel outside the track, and the ventilation air pipe h at the angle of the side and roof. The ventilating pipe entering the heading may be reduced to 12 inches in size and the rear length advanced; all the air may be forced to the heading in this reducedsize of pipe or a portion only may be delivered at the heading face as it advanced.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is I 1. The method of tunneling which comprehends the shooting of the cut substantially simultaneously partially with tape and partially with electric fuse.

2. The method of tunneling which comprehends running a heading along the bottom or track level and along one permanent side of the tunnel, building a staging with sufficient clearance underneath for the passage of the ore-cars, providing this staging with. suitable openings over the line of travel of the ore-cars and then casting down the material on to the staging to the roof-line.

3. The method of tunneling which comprehends running a heading along the bottom of the track level and along one permanent side of the tunnel building a staging with sufficient clearance underneath for the passage of the ore-cars, providing this staging with suitable openings over the line of travel of the ore-cars and then casting down the material on to the staging to the roofline and to the width of the tunnel and subsequently blasting out the remaining rock at the side and bottom of the tunnel.

4. The method of tunneling which comprehends running a heading on the bottom. of the tunnel, erecting a staging in the heading and providing this staging with suitable hopper openings through which the material cast down from above may be fed into the orccars beneath, and which taging is arranged to support the material cast down from above and then casting down the overhead material to the roof line upon said staging.

5. The method of tunneling which compre hends running a heading on. the bottom of the tunnel, erecting a staging in the heading and providing this staging with suitable hopper openings through which the material cast down from above may be fed into the orecars beneath, and which staging is arranged to support the material cast down from above and then casting down the overhead rock to the roof line upon said staging, said overheed rfiatei-ial' being blested out bj drilling In testimony whereof I have hereupto holes into the faceof the out at suitable inset my hand in presence of two su-bscmbmg' clinations from the horizontal, filling the hole witnesses.

with a suitable blasting medium and then JOSEPH P. 5 d isel 1 a,rging the blast in rapid succession be- Witnesses:

gmmng with the central hole, substantially H. A. ROGERS,

as described. L. R. ADAMs. 

